Research profile

Bettina Dahl Søndergaard (Soendergaard) holds dual positions as Associate Professor of problem-based learning (PBL) at the Aalborg UNESCO PBL Centre in Engineering Science and Sustainability at Aalborg University and as Professor of mathematics education at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Bergen in Norway. Her main expertise is within mathematics education, problem-based learning, vocational education, gifted education, assessment, and out-of-school time learning in the STEM fields. Her Ph.D. is in mathematics education (Roskilde, 2003), and one M.Sc. is in Educational Research Methodology (Oxford, 2000) and another M.Sc. is in mathematics (Aalborg, 1997; cand.scient.) with social science as the "sidefag".

She has worked at universities around the world (Virginia Tech, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Bergen, University of Oxford, Aarhus University), including done consultancies for the World Bank and is currently an Expert for the European Commission. She has also been appointed to several committees, e.g., relating to K10 mathematics education and the new mathematics teacher training under the Danish ministry of education and was an invited participant of the Sorø Meeting in 2023. Since 2010, she has been the vice chairman of the corps of examiners (censorkorps) for mathematics at the universities, appointed by the ministry of research. Internationally, she was the first (and so far only) Danish member of the International Committee (and treasurer) of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (IGPME) and she has been chair of the Out-of-School Time Special Interest Group in AERA (American Educational Research Association).

She has 200 publications spread on both high-ranking journals, pieces written for teachers as well as op-eds for the newspapers. She is also a frequent referee at informal learning/out-of-school time competitions in K12 STEM such as FIRST LEGO League, Edison, and Unge Forskere. 

She is the PI or co-PI on several projects in the area of mathematics education and PBL for both university and vocational students. For instance, she is the chairman of the Expert Group in Vocational Education at NCUM, the Danish national centre for the development of mathematics education and she leads a Novo Nordisk funded project about vocational students and competence development of teachers (KLUMP). In addition, she is the co-supervisor of four African Ph.D. students in lower secondary mathematics education, and part of the steering group, for the capacity building project, MATH4SDG, funded by Norad, situated at the University of Bergen, in collaboration with Makerere University in Uganda and University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.